Johnston: Religion has no place in politics

Thursday

Feb 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMFeb 28, 2008 at 8:50 PM

The only time I have written about religion in politics is when the politician in question raised it as an issue himself. When you think about it, why should one have to be a true believer in any organized faith system to qualify for holding office in this land of the free and the home of the brave?

James Johnston, Local columnist

The only time I have written about religion in politics is when the politician in question raised it as an issue himself. When you think about it, why should one have to be a true believer in any organized faith system to qualify for holding office in this land of the free and the home of the brave?

It is the bigotry of religion which has made a cat's dinner out of a great many things in the life of the inhabitants of this planet. It is bad enough that people are willing to die for a religious philosophy or some faith system, but the fact that they want somebody else to die for it is beyond my humble understanding.

The history of the world is soaked in the blood of millions of people who have been killed in the name of holy religion of all sorts.

The Protestants and Catholics of Ireland have been killing each other for years for no reason other than they are Protestants and Catholics, and the people of the Jewish faith have had it bad for more than 1,700 years, that is to say, ever since the Christians got to be top dog in the Roman world in the 4th century of the common era.

To believe that one has a corner on religious truth is to believe that everybody else is wrong. And some folks believe that if you are wrong about the religion thing, you ought to be dead or at least not elected president, or maybe both.

Within the last three months, I have actually heard some bright lights say, "I'd never vote for Obama, because he is a Muslim. If I voted for him, it would be an insult to all the men fighting in Iraq."

OK, that's an interesting point of view which was clearly expressed with the bark off, and it is purely bigoted hogwash. I know that some Republican bloggers have spread the lie that Obama is a Muslim, but then they like to spread lies like that.

The Bush people did the same in South Carolina when John McCain ran against George W. Bush in the Republican primary in 2000. At that time, they suggested, by innuendo in a series of telephone calls, that McCain fathered a little black girl out of wedlock. The so-called "Swift Boat" ads run by Republicans against John Kerry in 2004 are also typical of the same narrow-minded desperation of that ilk of highly prejudiced and bitter bigots who are filthy political tricksters of the Nixonian stripe.

Being, or not being, a Christian should not mean a thing for any contender running for political office. As it happens, Obama was raised a Christian, but I won't hold that against him. It should also not be a reason not to vote for or against him. Religion is, for the most part, a private matter.

During my political life when I served on many different boards and committees in the town of Franklin, I would never have answered any questions about my beliefs because it is nobody's damned business.

In the Middle Ages, good Christians went off on nine crusades for the express purpose of killing Muslims, who were in their own countries, for no other reason that Joshua Bar Joseph, aka Jesus Christ, once lived, and preached, and met his unfortunate death in that Muslim held area.

I would like to note that for the most part Muslims allowed both Jews and Christians the freedom to worship, but when the Christian crusaders captured Jerusalem, they slaughtered both Muslims and Jews. A difference of religion is no reason to wage war and kill tens of thousands of Muslims and Jews.

We still see to be doing it today. What sane god would wish that? Religion is no reason to vote for or against a presidential candidate. When Huckabee says, "I am the Christian candidate," should we be a little bit worried"

Iraq, unlike Afghanistan, had nothing to do with the horrible events of 9/11. Yet the good Christian President Bush, aided and abetted by his Christian vice president Cheney, whose former company Haliburton has made a huge fortune out of this war through government no bid contracts, insisted on making a very costly war on that nation. Iraq is a nation of unhappy Muslims which now has less reason than ever to trust us in the world.

I have had students who have been Muslims, Jews, Christians, and atheists. In my eyes, they were of equal value. Their belief systems were nobody's business but their own. When Romney brought up his belief system, or when Huckabee states that, "I would like to bring the Constitution more in line with the word of God," I do sit up and take notice. I want no theocratic state in the United States of America set up by Huckabee or by advocates the idiotic teaching of "Intelligent Design" or "Creationism" in the schools of this commonwealth or in this nation.

When Romney said, "I will be guided by the faith of my fathers," it is good to examine what the "faith of his fathers" is if he would do this while president of the United States. This is the land of all our fathers who belonged to more than 100 faiths all of which should be suffered equally.

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